Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of multi-use of marine space: A comparative analysis of offshore wind energy and mussel farming in the Belgian Continental Shelf with terrestrial alternatives

Basit Öğe Kaydı
dc.authorid0000-0003-3849-482X
dc.authorid0000-0002-4954-7686
dc.authorid0000-0001-8341-154X
dc.authorid0000-0002-6273-9527
dc.contributor.authorDe Luca Pena, Laura Vittoria
dc.contributor.authorBas, Bilge
dc.contributor.authorDewulf, Jo
dc.contributor.authorvan den Burg, Sander W. K.
dc.contributor.authorTaelman, Sue Ellen
dc.date.accessioned2026-04-04T18:55:34Z
dc.date.available2026-04-04T18:55:34Z
dc.date.issued2024
dc.departmentİstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi
dc.description.abstractThe Belgian Continental Shelf is a highly used part of the North Sea, where many different maritime activities thrive, such as shipping, fishing and energy production. Offshore wind energy in particular has gained importance in the region and concessions zones are allowed to be combined with aquaculture activities. It is unclear what the environmental impact of maritime multi-use is, from a life-cycle perspective, where there is potential to create synergies in the value chains, and how similar the impact compares to currently used alternatives. Therefore, this study performs a Life Cycle Assessment on a combination of a full scale existing wind energy farm and a mussel farm design. When analyzing the net environmental impact results of the multi-use offshore farm at the level of three areas of protection, i.e. human health, ecosystem quality and natural resources, it shows that the mussel farm contributes relatively the most to the net impacts, while the majority of the avoided burdens are attributed to the wind farm. Mainly the supply chain of materials required to manufacture its components followed by the operational activities of the multi-use offshore farm contribute to the environmental footprint. Moreover, taking advantage of joint activities, i.e. combined transport between the wind and mussel farm during operational activities (Scenario 1) and at decommissioning phase (Scenario 2) did not show a significant reduction in the overall net impacts of a multi-use farm. The life cycle assessment results of a multi-use offshore farm are furthermore compared with relevant terrestrial benchmarks in Belgium, i.e. nuclear energy and pork meat production. While the benchmarks have a high burden on the area of protection ecosystem quality due water and land use requirements, the multi-use farm mainly impacts the remaining areas of protection, i.e. human health and natural resources, again as a consequence of the burdens of its supply chain. This study reveals the potential of offshore multi-use farms in terms of environmental sustainability, offering valuable insights to policy-makers and value chain actors, and generally contributes to well-informed decision-making.
dc.description.sponsorshipAgentschap Innoveren & Ondernemen (Flanders Innovation and Entrepreneurship Agency) [HBC.2019.2903]
dc.description.sponsorshipThis work was financially supported by the Agentschap Innoveren & Ondernemen (Flanders Innovation and Entrepreneurship Agency) within the framework of the Sustainable Marine Ecosystem Services (SUMES) project [VLAIO grant number: HBC.2019.2903] . We are grateful to Annelies Declercq (UGent) , Atakan Yuce (CEC Marine) , and Naeem Adibi (WeLOOP) for their valuable input during expert meetings to develop the life cycle inventory of the mussel farm. We would like to thank the SUMES consortium (GhEnToxLab from UGent, VLIZ and Antwerp University) , Margot Cooreman-Algoed (UGent) , Stefaan De Smet (UGent) , Sil De Byser (DEME group) , Cara McHardy, Steven van Hemelryck, Loren Timmermans from the Colruyt group, Elisabete Pinto da Silva and Chris Blommaert from Parkwind, and Marnix Poelman from Wageningen University for their valuable contribution and feedback in the development of this work.
dc.identifier.doi10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.143271
dc.identifier.doi10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.143271
dc.identifier.issn0959-6526
dc.identifier.issn1879-1786
dc.identifier.scopus2-s2.0-85199904059
dc.identifier.scopusqualityQ1
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.143271
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/11411/10456
dc.identifier.volume470
dc.identifier.wosWOS:001286453200001
dc.identifier.wosqualityQ1
dc.indekslendigikaynakWeb of Science
dc.indekslendigikaynakScopus
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherElsevier Sci Ltd
dc.relation.ispartofJournal of Cleaner Production
dc.relation.publicationcategoryMakale - Uluslararası Hakemli Dergi - Kurum Öğretim Elemanı
dc.rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.snmzKA_WoS_20260402
dc.snmzKA_Scopus_20260402
dc.subjectSocioeconomic Analysis
dc.subjectPerformance
dc.subjectEmissions
dc.subjectClimate
dc.subjectSite
dc.titleEnvironmental Life Cycle Assessment of multi-use of marine space: A comparative analysis of offshore wind energy and mussel farming in the Belgian Continental Shelf with terrestrial alternatives
dc.typeArticle

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